From Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutter, April 27, at
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=13:
TOO MUCH! STORY! There have been a number of criticisms of Marvel house style of late, over not enough story in each issue, work being 'padded' so it takes up more issues, with an eye to getting a trade paperback out of it.
At Wondercon, Geoff Johns stated that after writing one of his first Avengers scripts, it was sent back for having 'too much story.' He then cut the script in half, padded it out a bit, and made two issues out of it. He was then not surprised to see reviews saying that not enough happened in the comic. He agreed.
When a version of this was posted on an AOL board, Tom Brevoort confirmed Johns' account, saying 'I would have chosen a different way to describe all this, but yes, that's essentially accurate.'
(end quote)
This is the sort of thing that totally and irredeemably ticks me off, and it's not the first time either. (And for every one of these types of stories, we know there are 50 similar ones we never hear about.) This is a sabotaging of both the quality level of comics in general, the writer's work, and the publisher's relationship with and commitment to the customer.
This is another nail in the coffin of my 18-year career as a Marvel True Believer, and one of the last ones. I have been dissatisfied with New Marvel policies for some time, and considered ceasing my purchases from them almost entirely. Now I'm going to. From now on I will buy only very special projects of very specific interest to me. That, and focusing on back-issues. New Marvel is just giving me so much more grief than pleasure these days, so why should I keep buying them? (Not that I'm buying that much from them right now anyway.)
Seems to me Marvel editorial are not in charge of the content anymore; they are just yes-men to an upper management (incl. Jemas) which doesn't care one whit about passionate quality storytelling. The Suits will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes!
Well, Classic Marvel was great while it lasted.
- Tue
